The coldplay cd x&y comes equipped with that nasty copy control technology - how can I get around this to actually play the CD I purchased - It won't even recognise the CD never mind letting me rip it so I can make a copy or transfer to a portable device.

I am not worried about ripping it - I'd just like to be able to play it.

I'm 100% on your side. It is a shame that record companies can sell crap like this: they want to boycott pirates (without success), while they only cause troubles to honest people who want to enjoy what they paid for....

Seems like the cd has its own cd player software on it that has to be downloaded first - pc is then restarted and then it will play - my latop must have Autorun switched off ad thats why it doesn't recognise it.

Be warned Sony tried this and there was a rootkit that hid itself and left your PC vulnerable. Antispyware and antivirus software has or is updating to be able to find and remove Sonys' root kit so check your computer just incase.

Seems like the cd has its own cd player software on it that has to be downloaded first - pc is then restarted and then it will play - my latop must have Autorun switched off ad thats why it doesn't recognise it.

Oh sorry, probably I should have told it to you... I was thinking that you wanted to play the CD "as is", without installing everything. Personally, I hate installing player software from audio CDs... they often install crap on your PC. Maybe you've heard something about Mark Russinovich's blog about Sony Rootkits...

EDIT: aww, JayC30, you were faster! However, Coldplay's CD shouldn't be on the list of audio CDs infested by latest rootkit.